Grime / Dubstep

In 2010, music is infinitely accessible. As soon as it's made it can be distributed, consumed, and, far quicker than before, moved on from. Everything is instant, even success. Just ask SBTRKT, an exciting new producer/performer who recently appeared to come out of nowhere to remix Tinie Tempah's UK #1 single, as well as tracks for Gorillaz, Modeselektor, and Basement Jaxx. He also made appearances on or at famed station Rinse, London's Fabric, and dubstep's foundational club, Forward>>, all in the span of 18 months. Such is his hype, he's currently having to turn down remixes and keep music off air because "things end up on YouTube within an hour or being on radio." In an accessible era, his success has been overnight.

Except it hasn't: Permanent internet connectivity-- any time, any place-- may be the reality of our times, but it turns out some skills still take time to perfect, such as honing your craft as a producer and finding your vision as an artist. So it was for SBTRKT. While it may have taken him the best part of 10 years of graft to perfect his skills, he's also blessed with the fortune of good timing, emerging as London pirate radio began coalescing around the UK funky, crack house, and the Circle & Night Slugs camps; his sound, while rooted in his original inspirations, feels utterly 2010.

"When I first started playing around with sequencers, I sent out CD demos to my mates named 'future garage!'" he exclaims. Coincidence or self-fulfilling prophecy? "Ever since listening to Masters at Work mid-90s house, drum'n'bass from the Reinforced and Metalheadz era, and 2-step, I wanted to make tunes and started messing with those sounds," he explains. "My early stuff was more of an imitation of other artists. Over time I learned how to record and arrange any of the ideas I had in my head..."

Turns out he didn't come out of nowhere after all. That's not to say that SBTRKT is some kind of technophobe or indeed that the digital era is some kind of hindrance to his progression. In fact quite the opposite is true. When he began sending out tracks no one knew of him, yet technology bridged the gap. "Twitter has been great at hitting people up. I just write tracks and let them out there through my email or I just chuck my new tracks up on Soundcloud for people to hear."

Anonymity is part of who SBTRKT is-- when he DJs or plays live he does so in a tribal mask-- so perhaps the internet was the perfect medium to get his music out there. You certainly couldn't accuse him of being one of those "well-connected" artists who got where they were via whom they knew not what they knew, not least because the one link he did have, he went to comic lengths not to exploit it. "I used go to Plastic People a lot five years ago, where I became friends with Sinden, but we lost touch for a bit," he says. "Then he started supporting my sound without knowing he already knew me-- he booked me as SBTRKT to play at his Fabric night last year. Only on the night, after months, he found out it was me..."

While a long lineage of electronic musicians have donned masks, from Mad Mike's balaclava to Daft Punk's robots and MF Doom's metal, SBTRKT's masks-- created by Hidden Place-- are more than just a screen to hide behind. "Live performance and music in general these days seems to be about the celebrity of it-- something I'm not into," he explains. "The music I make is slightly unexpected and the mask is part of that idea. I'm really into old cultures and new; also, my background has roots globally. It's inspired the way I conceptually write music, and in the end [the mask] is just the visual identity of that. I just want people to focus on the music, not on where I grew up or what I ate for lunch."

While we have no update on what he had for lunch, to take stock of his sound it's worth noting it's being played by DJs like Mary Anne Hobbs and Sinden, Benji B and Annie Mac, Skream and Zinc. He says he's been "big into 2-step since its early days" and recalls buying records from dubstep pioneer Jay Da Flex (Ghost) in Uptown and Release the Groove. He also describes a journey from 2-step through the broken beats of Seiji and Bugz in the Attic, echoes of which you can still hear in tracks like "Break Off" [ft. Sampha]. He then found Burial, Kode9, and Appleblim, at which point the circle is nearly complete.

"Garage has also always been my link to London, so the image it creates in my head drifting over the pirate station airwaves back in the day is inseparable," he says. "It's that thing people say like 'unless you been to Detroit you won't really understand the music' or similarly to Berlin. London has always been my city, so that swing element has always been in my music-- however far removed from the original 2-step sound it is."

SBTRKT's currently working on his debut album, as well as building a live show. He's had releases on Young Turks and Brainmath, with others due on Tempa and Ramp (the latter is a collaboration with Sampha), as well as two EPs with Sinden. He'll also be the support artist for Holy Fuck's UK tour in May.